King County has mailed ballots for the April 22nd election, so yours might even have arrived already. Proposition 1 for Metro and road money is on the ballot countywide. Here’s the text you’ll see on your ballot:

The Board of the King County Transportation District passed Resolution No. TD2014-03 concerning funding for Metro transit, roads, and other transportation improvements. If approved, this proposition would fund, among other things, bus service, road safety and maintenance and other transportation improvements in King County cities and the unincorporated area. It would authorize the district to impose, for a period of ten years, a sales and use tax of 0.1% under RCW 82.14.0455 and an annual vehicle fee of sixty dollars ($60) per registered vehicle under RCW 82.80.140 with a twenty dollar ($20) rebate for low-income individuals.

13 Comments

Everyone please, no matter how your going to vote read the wording in the question carefully. Watch out for the double negatives and other twists they put in the writing of the question. Please make sure your vote counts the way you want it to.

I saw one of their truck in the shop with a bad engine, truck had 68k miles on it and the oil had been changed 9 times. Sounds like good maintenance….Now plug in the computer, truck has been idling for 3500 hours. Now that’s equal to 300,000 miles or 8 hours a day for 4.5 years @ $4.00 a gallon….Can you say flush of tax payer dollars. BTW, the truck is a 2010 and they denied paying the warranty and the new engine was $12,000 that we payed for.

I’m not going to pay $60 per car to keep a sleeping grave yard maintenance worker warm….and this is only one vehicle. How many more vehicle are ran like this?

No double negatives or confusion in this ballot title, Sunny.206. Vote YES to help fund Metro transit and road improvements. Vote NO to oppose. And help get out the vote … April election will not be on a lot of people’s radar.

Hey Wendy, I’m not going to try to convince you that there’s no waste, because there is. But please keep in mind that it happens in both public AND private concerns and taxpayers and customers pay for that waste one way or another.

But what I WOULD like to offer is this thought. Getting an issue like the one you detailed resolved doesn’t require slashing service to many thousands of needy transit customers. It might be the equivalent of cropdusting a planterbox weed.

I suspect many folks who have concerns about waste would do well taking those concerns and documentation to electeds as a starting point. Squeaky wheels do get greased. Who knows, they might surprise you and get something moving?

And if nothing else, it won’t impact the great many who depend on the transit service for getting to their jobs at a cost they can actually afford.

wakeflood your right saying: (And if nothing else, it won’t impact the great many who depend on the transit service for getting to their jobs at a cost they can actually afford.)
Problem is it will effect everyone else that doesn’t use metro. Most in this city go pay check to pay check seems sort of unfair to me. I work to pay my own bills and cost and I pay enough now to the poorly run system. People that ride public transportation can pay more if they want to support a very badly designed and run system. This city has money to fix Metro now if they really wanted but they figure it’s easier to take more from the tax payers than tighten their own bad spending and decision making.

Wetone, I don’t imagine I’m going to change your mind as it seems made up. But for those of you who have an open mind, please remember two things:

One – the reason this is even on the ballot is because functional transportation funding at the state level is being held hostage by literally a couple of people in the state senate. They have an agenda that will cause many others outside their home districts pain and they don’t care. And don’t think for a minute that they’re making some statement about transit mismanagement. Their agenda has NOTHING to do with that.

Two – EVERY major city/regional transit system is heavily subsidized. Nobody pays what it actually costs to ride. Many are paying half or less than what a fare WOULD cost. Why do you think that is? So wetone’s assumption that it’s purely mismanagement should be a national rallying cry against transit systems?

Oh, and wetone, if you don’t actually use metro, you’re STILL impacted by it. Every stinking bus you see on the road is taking tens or dozens of cars off it so you can actually get someplace in your own vehicle. To deny that is pure ignorance.

You may not ride but you get something in return. That’s the whole point of the commons – and roads/bridges/transit are all part of that.

And I have to just vent for a second about tax scolds. This country is literally 5 TRILLION dollars behind in infrastructure projects. Roads, bridges, powerplants, etc, etc. Remember when matching funds from the Federal Gov’t allowed bonding by local municipalities to actually keep our infrastructure current and not on the brink of collapse? Well, the anti-tax crowd has successfully used every tool in their arsenal to convince Americans that they don’t need to pay what it costs to maintain our 1st world status. What the post-war generation built with pride is quickly crumbling and some would have us believe it’s not worth keeping up. Penny wise, pound foolish.

Wakeflood;
Watch the empty Buses on Alki, Beach Drive,
Genesse, 49th. Admiral. Now how many cars did You say were taken of the Road? I haven’t Been on a Bus in Thirty Years and probably never will. Maybe the Bus riders can subsidize My car tabs.

Laura
4% of King County Residents use the Bus, So the 96% Should Pay For It? Outside of Commute times these buses are nearly empty. Do We need a sixty footer going down Alki at Midnight, Me thinks Not.
Clean up the waste before asking for a raise!

King County Transportation District
Proposition No. 1
Sales and Use Tax and Vehicle Fee for Transportation Improvements
The Board of the King County Transportation District passed Resolution No.
TD2014-03 concerning funding for Metro transit, roads and other transportation
improvements. If approved, this proposition would fund, among other things,
bus service, road safety and maintenance and other transportation
improvements in King County cities and the unincorporated area. It would
authorize the district to impose, for a period of ten years, a sales and use tax of
0.1% under RCW 82.14.0455 and an annual vehicle fee of sixty dollars ($60)
per registered vehicle under RCW 82.80.140 with a twenty dollar ($20) rebate
for low-income individuals.